Sardonic detective Shane, thrown out of one town for bringing trouble, heads for home and his ex-partner's detective agency. The business is in a sad way, and Shane, who has had the forethought to provide himself with a 250-dollar commission from an old lady on the train, is welcomed with open arms. When pretty Valerie Purvis walks in the next day willing to pay over the odds to put a tail on the man who did her wrong, Shane's way with the ladies looks like paying off yet again. But things start to go wrong when his partner is murdered, and Shane himself comes home to find his apartment wrecked by a gentlemanly crook who comes back to apologise -- and to tell him a fascinating fairy-story about the fabled Horn of Roland that looks like not being so mythical after all. Miss Purvis wants protection. The police want answers. And all sorts of people want the 'French horn'... but Shane is one jump ahead of everyone all the way. Well, almost.
Bette Davis | Valerie Purvis |
Warren William | Ted Shane |
Alison Skipworth | Madame Barabbas |
Arthur Treacher | Anthony Travers |
Marie Wilson | Miss Murgatroyd |
Wini Shaw | Astrid Ames (as Winifred Shaw) |
Porter Hall | Milton Ames |
Olin Howland | Detective Dunhill |
Charles C. Wilson | Detective Pollock (as Charles Wilson) |
John Alexander | Black Porter |
Humphrey Bogart | |
Bernhard Kaun | Composer |
Heinz Roemheld | Composer |
J.H. Allen | Bootblack |
Mary Astor | |
Arthur Edeson | Cinematographer |
Gladys George | |
Sam Appel | Steamer Captain at Cafe |
Peter Lorre | |
May Beatty | Mrs. Arden |
Barton MacLane | |
Barbara Blane | Babe |
Billy Bletcher | Father of Sextuplets |
Maynard Holmes | Kenneth - Barabbas's Young Gunman |
Raymond Brown | City Fathers Committee Member |
James P. Burtis | Detective |
Frank Darien | Hotel Clerk |
William B. Davidson | City Fathers Committee Spokesman |
Don Downen | Reporter |
John Elliott | City Fathers Committee Member |
Sol Gorss | Jackie Farrow |
Kid Herman | Bootblack |
Joe King | Detective |
Alice La Mont | Mother of Sextuplets |
Alphonse Martell | Headwaiter |
Edward McWade | City Fathers Committee Member |
Bert Moorhouse | Man on Dance Floor |
Edmund Mortimer | Man on Dance Floor |
John J. Richardson | Second Photographer |
Cliff Saum | Patrol Officer |
Francis Sayles | Detective |
Eddie Shubert | Detective |
Ray Turner | Porter |
Huey White | Taxi Driver |
Leo White | Room Service Waiter |
Douglas Williams | Dock Walloper |
Jack Wise | Pushy Photographer |